The Deep South District
of the
National Forensic League
Deep South District Tournament Information
This is your official invitation to have your school and yourself as the coach to participate in the District Tournament for the Deep South District of the National Forensic League which will be held March 2-3 on the campus of Pelham High School in Pelham, Alabama. For those of you who may be unclear, the District Tournament serves as the qualifying tournament for the NFL National Tournament. We are using the joyoftournaments.com website for registration, which you should know considering you are using it as we speak!
PLEASE TAKE NOTE - This is the MOST important tournament of the year - the number of students at districts determines how many students move on to nationals - PLEASE ENTER THIS TOURNAMENT AND FILL YOUR SLOTS!!!!!!!
The rules for this tournament are outlined on the NFL website. They are lengthy and involved and I will highlight a few of them below, but if you want every detail you can go to nflonline.org - then go to the tab labeled “Districts” - click on “Tournament Manual” and you can print out the entire manual. WE MUST FOLLOW THESE RULES. Here are a few highlights that you need to know:
1) The school must be an affiliate or chapter school within the National Forensic League - meaning your school must have their $99 school fee paid.
2) Any student entered must be a member of the NFL - if you go to the nfl website and go to resources and district, you can click on your school to find this out - if the student is not listed then they can’t participate unless they are a member on record at least (7) days prior to the tournament.
3) A student must attend the high school they represent at the district and national tournament.
4) Prep time for Policy is 5 minutes; L/D is 4 minutes; Public Forum is 2 minutes
5) Topics - the Policy topic is the one for the 2010-2011 school year; the L/D topic is the one for March/April; the Public Forum topic is the one for March.
6) Any student competing in O/O, a copy of the speech signed by the coach and student must be turned in with the entry sheets.
7) For the Interp Events, title, author, and publishing information must accompany the entry sheets.
8) Any student that double-enters, must pre-declare which event they will do if they double-qualify to Nationals. That sheet must accompany the entry sheets.
9) Students may enter Congress and 2 other events. Students may double-enter except with the following combinations:
A) No doubling in team events - Policy, Duo, Public Forum - example, a student may not enter duo and public forum.
B) A student may not do both US and International Extemp
10) The number of entries a school has is based on the number of members and degrees on record with the NFL. There is a chart in the manual that shows you your number.
11) ALL COACHES ARE REQUIRED TO STAY UNTIL THE CONCLUSION OF THE ENTIRE DISTRICT TOURNAMENT - WE WANT TO HAVE AT LEAST 1 COACH ON EVERY FINAL ROUND PANEL.
12) Entry fees - $15.00 for IE entries and $25.00 for debate entries. School fee - $20.00
13) All schools must pay their entry fees this year - the money from the 2009 Nationals is now gone. :(
14) The use of electronic devices has been approved for ALL EVENTS, but you are not allowed to do live research once the round has started.
